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Arts Intel Report

Ezrom Legae: Beasts

Ezrom Legae, Horse, four stages of dying, 1967.

1280 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, United States

The artist Ezrom Legae was born in 1938 in South Africa, when apartheid was on the horizon. It would come into effect the year Legae turned 10, and as Black citizens, his family’s life would change. By the time he was in his 20s, Legae had become talented at sketching strange beasts, human figures in animal form—anguished, contorted, a protest against the oppressors. “I will continue to talk about things as I see them,” he said. “Change doesn’t happen overnight.” Things did change. Apartheid ended in 1990, nine years before Legae’s death. This exhibition presents more than 30 drawings from 1967 to 1997, some created during seminal moments like the violent Soweto uprising. —Elena Clavarino

Photo courtesy Private Collection, Sydney, Australia

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